This article includes spoilers for unlockable features and events in “Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream.”
Nintendo finally released the sequel to the social simulation game “Tomodachi Life” after 13 years of waiting on Thursday, April 16.
Technically the third installment of the series following Japan exclusive “Tomodachi Collection” on the Nintendo DS and “Tomodachi Life” on the Nintendo 3DS, “Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream” is available on both the original Nintendo Switch and the Switch 2 for $59.99. A free demo is currently available on the Nintendo eShop as well. As a longtime fan of the series, the announcement of this game back in March of 2025 made me extremely excited, and after playing it nonstop since its release, I can safely say it did not disappoint.
The basic structure of the game sets players as the caretaker of completely personalized “Mii” characters on a real-time island where you oversee their lives and influence their actions. The island is fully customizable and expands as you play the game. The player decides everything about it, such as the layout, the name of the island, where the Miis live, what they talk about, their relationships and so much more. This is a major step up from the previous games in which the Miis mostly lived in an apartment building that was much more limited. Now, Miis each have their own homes and can live in joint houses with up to eight others, something that was exclusive to married couples in the first two games.
Fans are thrilled to see that “Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream” includes options to make nonbinary characters, choose pronouns and have same-sex relationships — all things not present in the previous games. On top of this, the Mii character customization itself has been upgraded from the base creator, including the addition of unique hair combinations, makeup, ears and the extremely popular face paint feature that allows you to draw anything on a Mii’s face. My personal favorite customization feature that’s been added are “little quirks,” small details that change the way a Mii stands, walks, eats or even talks, which really adds to each Miis personality.
“Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream” allows the player to draw their own faces, food, items, houses and clothing, another feature widely loved by the player base. The major drawback to this, however, is that the online sharing of creations is not included in this game, something that was in “Tomodachi Life.” Since the game is such a social and dramatic life simulator, players would share Miis of people like Barack Obama and Jesus Christ for others to have silly interactions with. Players hope that the online sharing feature will return in an update, but I personally don’t think it will because it would be impossible to moderate and the game has zero content filtering, something I think is a fair trade off.
While there is a lot of control involved in this game compared to its predecessors, there is still a ton of random chance when it comes to how your Miis will interact with each other. In “Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream,” you can drag and drop Miis to certain objects or characters to start an interaction, but you don’t know if it will be good, bad or even romantic. Some users have complained that it’s very easy to get Miis to fall in love, and while I did get my boyfriend and I’s Miis to get married on the first day of playing the game, I haven’t been able to get any other married couples despite trying my best. The gameplay is addicting, but the Miis also go about their own lives while you’re away, allowing for unlimited possibilities.
“Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream” has broadened the content of the series a lot, but there are some beloved things missing from it. The big issue that people have is that you can only have 70 Miis compared to the original game’s 100, but I personally don’t see an issue with this because of how much more complicated the Mii relationships are. Some of the Mii minigames (Judgement Bay, Quirky Questions, etc.), the ranking boards, the compatibility tester andmost notably the concert hall are nowhere to be seen. Another big thing missing is raising Mii babies. When Miis get married, they can have children, and in “Tomodachi Life” it would take at least a few days for the child to grow up and live on their own. In this new game, a cutscene of the baby being raised plays and they grow up immediately after, completely cutting out the baby and child minigames that were in the original.
Overall, “Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream” has proven to be a fantastic sequel despite some original aspects missing, which could be added in a future update. I most certainly see myself checking in on my island every day for the next few months.
Rating: 4.5/5